Domestic pets, particularly pets that are kept indoors, require a place to perform their bodily functions and a container for their waste. Typically the place and container are combined in the form of a liner box. Litter, either absorbent or nonabsorbent, is contained within the liner box. After an animal has deposited its' waste in the litter the pet owner is confronted with the unpleasant task of cleaning the litter box. Since soiled litter contained in a litter box will quickly develop a foul odor, litter boxes and litter must be frequently cleaned in order to keep them agreeable to both pet and owner. To maintain a desired level of cleanliness a pet owner is required to keep watch on the litter box and perform the cleaning chore on a regular basis.
While liner box cleaning is a time-consuming nuisance that must be performed, pet owners prefer to minimize their contact with soiled litter and associated pet waste. Litter boxes may be cleaned by discarding all litter in a litter box after a pet has used the litter. However, discarding litter is wasteful and expensive therefore many pet owners prefer to separate soiled litter from clean litter, and then reuse the cleaned litter to save money and minimize the waste of litter. To address litter box cleaning issues a variety of devices have been developed. Hand held scoops as well as more elaborate liner box cleaning devices have been described. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,267 issued to Morrow describes a liner box with a screening and draining mechanism. However the device is designed to work with nonabsorbent litter, not with absorbent litter. In addition the device has a fairly complicated mechanism which may be prone to breakdown. U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,340 issued to Arbogast describes a semiautomatic litter box operated by a crank mechanism. The device describe in the '340 patent is designed to work with absorbent litters, not nonabsorbent litters, and the crank mechanism has the effect of pushing all of the cleaned litter to one side of the container when used. In addition, there is no convenient method of cleaning the screen used to sift the litter, should the screen itself become soiled with waste. Another device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,620 issued to Sarkissian. As with the previous device the '620 device is designed to work with absorbent litter. The litter box described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,508 issued to Butzen is designed to work with absorbent litter, cannot be operated automatically, and operating the device requires bending and physical effort on the part of the pet owner. Another device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,749,318 issued to Barbot et al.. The '318 device is designed to work with absorbent litter, is mechanically complex, and uses a cleaning screen which may be burdensome to clean when soiled with pet waste. The drum-type litter box described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,457 issued to Sugahara is designed to work with absorbent, clumping litters. In addition, cleaning the interior of the drum may be difficult. Other references of interest include U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,264 issued to Carter; U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,150 issued to Gershman; U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,104 issued to Pierson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,797 issued to Laroche; U.S. Pat. No. 5,477,812 issued to Waters; U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,379 issued to Hoeschen and U.S. Pat. No. 5,752,465 issued to Page. The references cited above and all other references cited within this application are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
There remains a need for a litter box devices and methods of using litter box devices that do not require the use of specific consumables, such as absorbent or nonabsorbent litter, which minimize physical effort on the part of the user, which are mechanically simple and therefore reliable, which minimize odors, which minimize or eliminate contact with soiled litter, and which may optionally be operated automatically.